924 A-I-O Busy and Color errors problems

Troubleshooters are not able to cure this. I get a printer busy message every time I try to print, even thought the cue shows nothing pending.

Update: Busy messages have ceased.

Concurrent problem is color printing was yellow-brown (black works fine), but now no color at all. Clean and alignment pages look good except for broken/faded blues. I am using series 5 high capacity cartridges purchased direct from Dell Online. First the monitor showed 2 different brand new cartridges with low ink levels, and about 214 pages left to print, now it indicates "Ink Cartridge Missing".

That seems like a lot of pages to print! If you want to delete the print jobs, then run... Delete Print Jobs

As for the Dell series 5 ink cartridge, can you copy a document when you put it under the glass? B&W and color? I suspect a bad sensor in one of the Dell Series 5 ink cartridges.

Unplug the printer from the wall. Now remove the power brick from the back of the printer for 60 seconds. Plug everything back in. This will reset any error messages the printer has.

Power on the printer. Open the printer and take out the Dell Series 5 Black cartridge. make sure all the tape is off the cartridge and put the cartridge back in. Now do the same for the Dell Series 5 color cartridge.

Close the printer. It should print an alignment page. Any error messages?

Thank you for your help, Rick. I think I tried to write too much in the original post.

The reference to 214 pages was what the ink monitor was telling me. It was, at one point, recognizing both black and color cartridges. But it seemed odd to indicate only 214 pages worth of ink left in brand new cartridges. The busy messages are now resolved.

The problem with the ink remains. Now, it recognizes only the black cartridge, and I am able to print black pages from a file or online, but cannot copy or scan because I get a "Color cartridge missing" message. I have tried two different color cartridges, including one brand new just opened. I got through to Dell Technical support, who had me power down, clean the ribbon and track. When I powered up, the printer made a noise like a machine gun, and does so each time I turn the printer on. It had not made this noise previously. The tech said because I had tried two different ink cartridges, it was most likely a hardware issue, but would send a new high capacity color ink cartridge to try anyway. Then he offered to sell me a new printer, because he didn't think the cartridge solution would work in the end.

So, where I am is that I can print black pages from a file or online just fine, but first get a "Missing ink cartridge" message. If I select continue, it lets me print all black docs and/or prints only the black text of a color doc. How does that sound?

By using the process of elimination, making a copy at the printer removes the computer from the issue. So not being able to print the color of a document tell me that you have a bad Dell Series 5 color ink cartridge(s). Contact Dell for replacements. You could look where the color cartridge sits and make sure everything look like it's clean. The missing cart rides is either the sensor in the cartridge or the contacts where the cartridge attaches to the printer.